I recently finished an office in my basement, and am looking at ways to get my desktop connected to my network. I could either:

1. Run the cable modem through the floor to the basement, then run a 100' Cat 5 cable to my office (hung along the wall, which Mrs. Gratch would hate), or2. Buy a wireless network adapter for my desktop

While I would prefer to be wired, going wireless would be a lot less of a PITA at this point. I've been looking at adapters like these, but have no idea if they would work for gaming. Keep in mind, I don't play a ton of online games, but do enjoy the occasional MMO.

Anyone tried using one of these, or is there something you use that you could recommend?

Wireless N should work. MMORPGs are usually pretty good about low bandwidth connections. You can always pickup a high power router to boost the signal if you need to. I'd get an internal card that supports MIMO instead of a USB, unless the USB had an external antenna...

Your PC will think it's on a regular network since it will connect to the bridge via regular cat-5 cable. The bridge will connect via WiFi to your router. One thing I like about this set up is you can find a good spot for the bridge where the WiFi signal strength is strongest and not have to move the PC around.

If you do a lot of huge file transfers between PCs on the LAN, you'd still want cable connection though. File transfers through WiFi is painfully slow.

Your PC will think it's on a regular network since it will connect to the bridge via regular cat-5 cable. The bridge will connect via WiFi to your router. One thing I like about this set up is you can find a good spot for the bridge where the WiFi signal strength is strongest and not have to move the PC around.

If you do a lot of huge file transfers between PCs on the LAN, you'd still want cable connection though. File transfers through WiFi is painfully slow.

Thanks Tokek, I may look into that. Someone at OO recommended one of these. If it works as advertised, it would be the perfect solution. Might give it a shot first, then go with something else if it doesn't work.

My issue was that my house is very long with my cablemodem hookup in the very front room. I hooked my Airport Extreme there and while there was signal in my office (near the rear of the house), it was a pretty shitty signal. Powerline worked great, giving me full bandwidth and no noticeable increase in ping. It worked so well I hooked up a second WiFi Hotspot to it to provide strong wireless for the rear of my house and my back yard.

My speedtest results plugged into the wireline. This is basically the same as if I was plugged directly into the modem itself.